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Lord Beecham argues that the proposed government cuts to legal aid will bear most harshly on some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Lord chancellor Kenneth Clarke has made a welcome start in reshaping penal policy, reversing the Draconian and expensive policies of Michael Howard in the last Conservative government, from which the Labour government failed sufficiently to depart. It is all the more disappointing, therefore, that in the realm of civil justice he appears to be about to turn the clock back six decades by withdrawing funding for legal advice and assistance over a wide range of areas, including welfare and education law, housing and employment, clinical negligence and more besides.
The government will shortly respond to a consultation on proposals which, even allowing for some limited exceptions in some categories, will result in assistance being withdrawn from some 500,000 people on its own estimate. In fact, the real figure is likely to be 650,000 or more to judge by the impact of the proposals when weighed against the actual number helped in 2009/10.
The budget for civil legal aid is being cut by 28 per cent, resulting in a two-thirds reduction in the number of people helped, and, together with cuts in support from hard-pressed council budgets, imperilling the future of law centres, advice bureaux and other organisations engaged in the civil justice agenda. The proposals ignore the strong recommendation in the Jackson Report, which itself made controversial recommendations about the wider civil justice system and costs, but which stressed 'the vital necessity of making no further cutbacks in legal aid availability or eligibility'. It went on: 'The legal aid system plays a crucial role in promoting access to justice at proportionate costs in key areas'.
These cuts, like other government policies in the realm of welfare and disability benefits, will bear most harshly on some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who are also the least likely to benefit from one of the government's favoured alternatives in many areas of dispute, mediation. The latter has its uses, but is not appropriate where there is disequilibrium between the parties, as is often the case, for example in matrimonial cases.
There is still time for Ken Clarke to revert to the Dr Jekyll side of his political character rather than lapse into Mr Hyde. Let's hope he takes the opportunity to do so.
A solicitor by profession, Jeremy Beechamwas raised to the peerage as Baron Beecham of Benwell and Newcastle upon Tyne in the County of Tyne and Wear in 2010. Beecham served as a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee from 1998 until 2010, holding the position of chair from 2005-06.
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